(a) Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to any headgear, or an article of clothing to be worn on the head, especially a bald human head. Bald men perspire differently than men with hair and to date a hat has not been designed to address this issue.
Headgear, including hats and caps, are very popular among consumers. Consumers use these articles for protection against the sun, cold and rain, and as a clothing accessory. One important feature of these caps and hats is the ability to keep the head cool under the hot sun. Another important feature is a suitably designed interior that makes the cap comfortable to wear, and secures it to the head. Yet another desirable feature is to maintain the rigidity of the visor or front panel of a baseball or athletic cap.
Headgear is also popular and essential among sportspersons for the purpose of protecting the head. The risk of injury is a real and serious concern for athletes, especially those involved in contact or adventure sports. Thus, athletes have to wear protective headgear. However, by the very nature of the vigorous physical activity, athletes are prone to perspiration. There is a need for some mechanism to ventilate and cool the head, while protecting it adequately.
Baseball or athletic caps are especially popular among enthusiasts of outdoor sports. Many commercial designs are available that include features to keep the head ventilated and cooled. Given the outdoor use, many such caps are either made of ventilated netting material, or some suitable wicking fabric. However, these caps rely on the material and do not utilize structural features to channel and evaporate moisture.
Baseball or athletic caps and hats are very popular among men, including bald men. Bald heads do not have the hair to provide a buffer between the skin and the fabric of the cap. The lack of hair on bald heads also prevents the perspiration from being channeled through the strands of the hair. Therefore, a cap or hat on a bald head becomes filled with perspiration, is uncomfortable and does not wick moisture effectively unless it has some suitable linings on the interior, and a soft absorbent portion where the visor comes in contact with the forehead. A cap or hat on a sweaty bald head is even more uncomfortable unless the cap or hat is equipped with a systematic and efficient moisture wicking mechanism. Many existing designs for caps and hats lack proper moisture wicking and ventilation for bald heads. The resulting perspiration makes the fabric moist, leading to deformation of shape, sweat stains and discomfort to the bald head.
Many caps and hats are manufactured in very large quantities. Smaller quantities are subsequently purchased by retailers. Oftentimes, businesses or individuals might want these headgears personalized with an embroidered logo. A logo may be embroidered to the front portion of the cap by placing an embroidery hoop. Since this step is typically carried out after the headgear has been manufactured, the stitches on the reverse side of the logo would be sewn through the inner portion of the cap. These stitches would then come in contact with the skin of the wearer of the headgear, causing chafing. This chafing is exacerbated in bald individuals, who lack the protective layer of hair to cover their skin. There is therefore a need to overcome this problem by including a protective shield during the manufacture of the headgear, so that any logo, embroidery, lapel pin, badge, and such other objects may be added onto the exterior of the headgear at a point in time after the headgear is manufactured.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Caps and hats that have been developed over the years may be classified into two groups: those that provide some features for comfort, or those that provide some features for moisture wicking. Pre-existing caps or hats do not adequately address the need for enhanced moisture wicking and comfort for bald men. Accordingly, there is a need to improve the caps, hats and headgear of the prior art.
In U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/0235395, Tseng's invention relates to a cap having a visor with a soft and resilient inner edge that can be transformed to perfectly fit the wearer's forehead. However, while achieving a perfect fit for heads that have sufficient amount of hair, this invention becomes uncomfortable to the forehead of a bald person due to the added friction caused by the design of the resilient inner edge of the visor. The invention disclosed by Fender in U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,445 is that of a ventilated athletic cap. It has an adjustable sweatband, a semi-rigid visor and a canopy with air vents to permit air flow. Similarly, Ridley discloses an invention in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,191 that has a vented visor cap designed to permit air flow and the unintentional removal of the cap by wind currents. However, neither has a mechanism to drain and evaporate the moisture from the head, nor do they have any comfort features, especially as relevant to the bald head.
A mechanism for absorbing moisture is disclosed by Duda et. al. in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2010/0138980. A baseball or athletic cap is designed that absorbs perspiration using a wicking material, and collects this moisture in a removable component attached to the visor in front. It lacks the ability to aid easy evaporation. Moreover, the extra moisture laden component in front adds weight, and additional discomfort to the area of the forehead.
In the area of athletic gear, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2007/0245451 by Desjardins and Tierney teaches us how to make a protective athletic glove with a ventilated palm portion. A wicking material draws the moisture from the inner palm surface to the outer surface of the glove. Since this invention relates to the hand, its drainage design and comfort parameters are very different from that of a headgear, especially like a trendy baseball or athletic cap.
A visor insert is disclosed by Gore in U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,279. While this maintains rigidity under high heat moisture and stress distortion, is prone to losing its shape when subjected to repeated machine washing.
Visors with some soft padding are also known in the prior art. Such soft portions are typically designed to provide a snug fit for the crown on the forehead. They are adequately padded to make them comfortable. Many headgears also come equipped with visors that have some wicking mechanism to absorb the sweat. However, none of these prior art headgears are effective in channeling the moisture away from the forehead. This is especially crucial for persons with a bald head. In such instances, there is a need for the visor to have an enhanced moisture wicking ability, while retaining their ability to provide a comfortable and snug fit.
It is common for headgears to be manufactured in bulk. Many of these headgears have logos embroidered on them. When embroidered caps are produced en masse, it is commercially viable to include the embroidery step as a part of the manufacturing process. In such instances, the headgear may come fitted with a flap that helps acts as a buffer between the embroidery stitches and the skin of the wearer of the headgear. Oftentimes though, when headgears are manufactured in bulk, they come without any embroidery or other designs. Typically, businesses or individuals approach retailers who carry these generic headgears, and require the headgears to be appropriately personalized. In particular, businesses or individuals may require a logo or some other embroidery to be placed onto the outer surface of the headgear, after the headgear has been manufactured. Many golf caps, for instance, are personalized after they are manufactured. When such a logo or embroidery is stitched onto the headgear, the stitches appear on the reverse side of the headgear. Given the costs of attaching an extra flap to buffer the stitches from the skin, most retailers skip this step.
The presence of the stitches on the reverse side of the embroidery may cause the skin to be irritated when it comes in contact with the stitches. This is especially true if the head lacks hair to act as a protective buffer. Thus, bald men would be more sensitive to chafing of the skin due to continuous friction between the skin and the stitches. This may be further exacerbated under hot or humid conditions. There is therefore a need for a protective shield to be placed at the time of manufacture of the headgear, without the headgear being personalized. Such a protective shield must be designed and placed in such a way so that embroidery may be added at any time after the manufacturing process is complete, and at any point in the stream of commerce. Moreover, if, as and when a logo is embroidered, the shield may then act as a protective buffer between the skin and the embroidery, without any additional modifications to the headgear. Therefore, this shield would be required to provide access to the region of the stitches so that an embroidery hoop or other such device may be inserted to embroider the selected portion of the headgear. Such a protective shield would then protect the skin by acting as a buffer between the stitches and the skin, and if made from suitable absorbent or wicking material, it also aids in absorbing the moisture from the forehead and transporting it to a region of the headgear where it may evaporate. Moreover, it may also act as a comfort padding on the forehead.
In view of the above, a motivation for this invention is to mitigate the disadvantages existing in the prior art by way of providing a headgear, including caps or hats, with enhanced moisture wicking and ventilation. This invention provides a suitable moisture wicking mechanism, and facilitates fast, easy evaporation of the moisture; a suitable design for the visor for enhanced absorption of the excess perspiration from the forehead; a wicking panel on the head that absorbs perspiration from the top of the head; a sweatband that comfortably secures the headgear to the head; a protective shield that protects the skin of the head from chafing due to embroidery or lapel pins; a sweat dome on top of the crown that absorbs the moisture from the top of the forehead and facilitates its evaporation from the top of the crown; and a visor insert that stays rigid and durable when subjected to repeated washing. These features may appear independently, or in any combination in any given embodiment of the headgear.